Candy brother buys One Hyde Park flat
THE DEVELOPERS of One Hyde Park have tried to lead by example by snapping up two of the luxury flats in the complex in Knightsbridge, it emerged yesterday.
Christian Candy, one half of property firm Candy & Candy, has bought a single-storey penthouse for £31m, according to press reports based on Land Registry documents yesterday.
This would be over £100m less than the asking price for the most expensive apartments in the complex.
Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber al-Thani, the Qatari Prime Minister who helped fund the development through his Guernsey-based Project Grande company, bought a three-storey penthouse flat in August.
But there has also been intense speculation as to the identity of the purchaser of the most expensive unit, a £140m penthouse apartment. The Capitalist in City A.M. was the first to highlight the mystery of the £140m penthouse owner last week and queried whether the developers may have purchased other apartments.
Candy & Candy has not disclosed the identity of the buyer.
The company maintained its refusal to name the buyer yesterday, citing a confidentiality agreement.
Candy & Candy said last week that the penthouse was bought by an anonymous party who came through the One Hyde Park website.
While the developers have announced that contracts have been exchanged on 60 per cent of the 86 flats available, it is thought that just two finalised sales have made it onto the Land Registry to date – both of them bought by the developers.
A director at Savills, one of the agents tasked with marketing the flats, told The Capitalist last week the new owner of the most expensive penthouse is not one of the developers.
Simon Cowell, Arcadia boss Philip Green and Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone were among 350 guests invited to the sumptous launch party of the Knightsbridge development last week.
The retail outlets on the ground floor of the complex have been let to carmaker McLaren, Rolex and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
The One Hyde Park scheme was started in 2006 and cost close to £1bn to develop.
A spokesperson for Candy & Candy said the identity and amount paid for each flat was private as part of a confidentiality agreement and declined to comment on the Land Registry public records.